Pimentel wants Balikatan-type drills for PNP

MANILA, Philippines — If the Philippine military have
Balikatan Exercises, a senator wants the police to have their own
“Kapatiran Exercises,” too. Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III proposed that the
Philippine National Police (PNP) should step up its prevention and crime
solution techniques by having its own “Balikatan-type” agreement. “Instead of a ‘Balikatan exercise,’ our police force could
undertake joint ‘Kapatiran exercises’ with police forces of other
countries in order to improve the crime-fighting and crime-solving
skills of the PNP,” Pimentel said in a statement Sunday. The senator said ‎that the PNP should pattern the proposed deal
with the VFA and modify it to “Visiting Forces Police Agreement (VFPA).” Seeking a “better training” from the country’s police force,
Pimentel said on Sunday that the PNP should enter into an agreement with
countries ‎with “advanced crime-solving and crime-fighting techniques.”

The rampant media-killings and drug-related crimes in the country
over the past years prompted the senator to propose the said exercises. “No one has been pinpointed, arrested and prosecuted for the
killings of media personalities, especially those in Mindanao and the
other provinces,” he said. The “Kapatiran Exercises,” according to the senator, would help
in the search for solutions to unsolved crimes, leading to faster
prosecution. Deal with Scotland YardPimentel also suggested that the PNP should “explore an
agreement” with the Scotland Yard, the metropolitan police of the United
Kingdom. Through this, the PNP could get advanced police training in
forensic scie‎nce and other breakthrough studies that “apply science in
solving crime.” “Our goal is to have a police force that is not just properly
armed but expertly trained in methods and techniques to prevent the
proliferation of crimes,” Pimentel added.